[00:16] Meg: Welcome to Desperately Seeking the 80s. I am Meg.

[00:19] Jessica: And I am Jessica, and Meg and I have been friends since 1982. We got through middle school and high school together here in New York City, where we still live and where we.

[00:29] Meg: Podcast about New York city in the 80s. I do rip from the headlines, and I do pop culture, which isn't really accurate. We both kind of do both. Especially lately, just listening to the podcast, I'm like, you know, we just both do whatever the hell we want to.

[00:48] Jessica: Do, you know, but that's not how we began. And I think that what's interesting, and I've noticed the same thing, is that I think that what we. I'll speak for myself. I think that my view of what New York City headlines and pop culture are has I realized they're the same. Like, New York news becomes pop culture, and it gets made into new things. So it's all kind of a mush. Like, unless it's, you know, I don't know, like a concert is always like, unless, like, 17 people die in fire whilst, you know, random band plays. But other than that, I feel like.

[01:36] Meg: I'm glad that never happened.

[01:38] Jessica: I know, but maybe it did. Oh, my God.

[01:40] Meg: Now we have to look. We have to find that story.

[01:43] Jessica: Search for the Google search. Random band burned in tragic band concert. Concert from hell. That's the New York Post.

[01:54] Meg: Anyway.

[01:55] Jessica: Yeah.

[01:56] Meg: Oh, my God, I've been so sick.

[01:58] Jessica: I know, and I'm so sorry. I mean, I have, too, but we've had really different ailments.

[02:03] Meg: God had different ailments. Because I don't wish this on you, and I don't wish what you had on you.

[02:10] Jessica: I don't wish what I had on you either.

[02:12] Meg: Let's. Let's just. Let's.

[02:14] Jessica: It was a heal. Let's just say it was not a great week for our health, our bodies.

[02:22] Meg: But we are pushing through.

[02:25] Jessica: Well, you pushed through better than I did. So we're gonna have a. I think a very special episode of. And it's very special because I'm the Special in quotes 1. We're gonna focus on your story today, and I'm going to just try to really react with great enthusiasm and wit, and I don't know what else I can bring to the table.

[02:47] Meg: I think there's enough meat on this bone for a good episode.

[02:54] Jessica: You said bone. All right, let's do it.

[03:10] Meg: My engagement question.

[03:12] Jessica: Yes.

[03:14] Meg: Did you watch Saturday morning cartoons?

[03:16] Jessica: Yes.

[03:17] Meg: What?

[03:17] Jessica: Did you enjoy the Flintstones?

[03:20] Meg: Oh, interesting. I think I watched the Flintstones and reruns I'm not sure I watched them specifically Saturday morning, but maybe I have a bad memory on that.

[03:28] Jessica: Well, they were.

[03:30] Meg: They were Hanna Barbera.

[03:32] Jessica: Yeah. All of that stuff I really enjoyed. Which is predictable because the Flintstones is the Honeymooners. And so, like, it's very. I realized as an adult, that's very on brand for my tastes. But I have to admit, I'm kind of drawing a blank on what the big ones were at the time for us. Other than that. Cause, like. And even that one. I think I've said this on this podcast before. That was on Sundays.

[03:59] Meg: Okay.

[04:00] Jessica: That wasn't a Saturday. Yeah. So the Saturday morning cartoons, I think I only watched them when I was really little, and so I can't recall.

[04:10] Meg: Did you ever watch ISIS and Shazam? That was live action. Did you watch Super Friends?

[04:20] Jessica: Sort of like passingly.

[04:22] Meg: Fat Albert. Yes.

[04:24] Jessica: Loved Fat Albert.

[04:26] Meg: Yeah.

[04:26] Jessica: Yeah, me too. Yeah.

[04:28] Meg: Fucking Bill.

[04:29] Jessica: Problematic.

[04:30] Meg: The fuck problematic. Oh, it's such a bummer because Fat Albert was special.

[04:36] Jessica: That Albert was so wholesome.

[04:38] Meg: Yeah. My sources are.

[04:40] Jessica: Oh, my God, the look on your face. I'm terrified. What's going to come next.

[04:47] Meg: Pee Wee as himself. The documentary.

[04:49] Jessica: Oh, Pee Wee's Playhouse. Poor Paul Reubens.

[04:54] Meg: Yeah. Did you watch the documentary?

[04:56] Jessica: No. No?

[04:56] Meg: No. Oh, good. I'm actually glad because there were some revelations that was sort of my starting source. And then I branched out into different articles and Reddit pages.

[05:10] Jessica: But Pee Wee was long after our childhood.

[05:12] Meg: Yes.

[05:13] Jessica: This is true. Okay.

[05:14] Meg: Yes. Pee Wee's Playhouse was after. We were watching Saturday morning cartoons.

[05:21] Jessica: Long after.

[05:21] Meg: Yeah.

[05:22] Jessica: I mean, not long.

[05:23] Meg: Not that long.

[05:24] Jessica: Was it? Was he?

[05:25] Meg: Well, do you want to hear the story?

[05:26] Jessica: I'm so sorry. Yes, go right ahead. What about.

[05:28] Meg: Well, you could just keep guessing.

[05:29] Jessica: I'm just gonna.

[05:30] Meg: Yeah.

[05:30] Jessica: Like, was he this. Did he do that? Okay.

[05:34] Meg: On Saturday morning at 11am September 13, 1986, Pee Wee's Playhouse premiered on CBS. The character of Pee Wee Herman, played by comedian and performance artist Paul Reubens, was already wildly popular. The movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure had come out the summer of 1985, and America fell in love with Pee Wee, an eccentric, saucy, yet sweet man child who wears a gray suit and red bow tie, dances in platform shoes, and loves his bicycle. At the premiere of the movie, an executive of CBS approached Paul Reubens and his manager, Rich Abramson, and said they were interested in doing a children's show starring Pee Wee. The original concept for the show was a bunch of cartoons introduced by Pee Wee. Kind of like. That was sort of the Fat Albert model. Yes, where Bill Cosby would talk a little bit, but really he was just setting up the cartoons. But Paul had something else in mind. He'd always wanted a nighttime TV show similar to his midnight stage show that played at the Groundlings Theater and the Roxy in LA. Now, Paul Reubens was one of 22 finalists for the notorious season six of Saturday Night Live. The bad season that season. He was crushed when Gilbert Gottfried was cast instead of him, but in defiance of, decided to produce his own live show starring himself. And that's how the Pee Wee show was born. So it was just a live stage show inspired by Howdy Doody, Captain Kangaroo, the Mickey Mouse club, and other 1950s kids shows. The Pee Wee show is a day in the life of Pee Wee Herman at home in his Puppetland Playhouse and featured friends and citizens of Puppetland, including Captain Carl, played By Phil Hartman, Ms. Yvonne Jambi, played by John Paragon, and Terry the Pterodactyl. Paul's idea was to tweak his midnight show, which included all kinds of adult humor, and just make it kid friendly. Paul got his BFA at Cal Arts and saw the idea of a kids show as a huge opportunity to create a subversive, inclusive fantasy land where being weird was not only okay, it was celebrated. He also loved the idea of being hugely influential. He was as ambitious as he was talented and creative. And a kids show was a chance at superstardom. Get em when they're young.

[08:34] Jessica: Oh, that sounded very sinister, Meg.

[08:37] Meg: Well, I mean, think about it like Mr. Rogers neighborhood. I mean, I watched Captain Kangaroo when I was little. I'm thinking of Electric Company. I mean, once you see those things that's with you for life, they're imprinted. Yeah. It's in your DNA from then on.

[08:53] Jessica: Indeed.

[08:54] Meg: It was CBS's idea to partner him with Broadcast Arts, which had produced animation, special effects and stop motion photography for mtv. It was a great pairing, but Paul was in charge. He was exacting and uncompromising and hand picked the artist that created his playhouse. Gary Panter, a punk cartoonist, was the design director and he hired underground cartoonists Wayne White and Rick Heitzman to help him create the visual world.

[09:29] Jessica: Can I tell you something about Wayne White?

[09:31] Meg: Yes.

[09:31] Jessica: So Wayne White's wife is an incredible cartoonist who we've talked about on this show. Mimi Pond.

[09:41] Meg: Oh, my God, no, Wayne.

[09:42] Jessica: Yes. And so Wayne White is still an artist and still doing puppet creation and theater and exhibits of all kinds of sculpture and soft sculpture. And he's. They're like, they're just, they're amazing. And Mimi recently published an incredible graphic novel, but only in like shades of blue, that's all about the Mitford sisters.

[10:11] Meg: Oh yeah, no, I've. Our Instagram follows her, so I see those posts.

[10:15] Jessica: Yeah, so that's her husband, Wayne White.

[10:18] Meg: How cool.

[10:19] Jessica: Yeah, so you know, she was Simpsons, he was Pee Wee.

[10:23] Meg: They delivered these artists thousands of sketches to Paul and he approved the most bizarre ones. According to Gary Panter, quote, this was like the hippie dream. It was a show made by artists. We put art history all over the show. It's kind of like the Googie style. It's like those LA types of coffee shops and stuff, but kind of psychedelic, over the top. Do you know what Googie style is? No, I'd never heard of it either. Let's look it up right now.

[10:56] Jessica: Googie style. Right There it is.

[10:59] Meg: Okay, tell us about it.

[11:01] Jessica: Googie architecture is a futuristic California born mid century style, 1940s to the 70s, inspired by post war space age optimism, atomic energy and car culture. It features dramatic soaring cantilevered roofs, acute angles, bold neon signs and large plate glass windows commonly used for diners, coffee shops and motels.

[11:25] Meg: Okay, I can picture this.

[11:26] Jessica: They use space age materials and imagery and futuristic shapes like boomerangs and amoebas. Oh, here's Googie Car wash. Here's an image for us to take a look at.

[11:37] Meg: Oh my God, yes.

[11:38] Jessica: Okay, it says Googie historic timeline so you can see what the font is.

[11:44] Meg: And it sounds like that cartoon the Jetsons. Yes, totally Jetsons. So it was a pop art world. The puppets looked more like art school projects than Muppets. These visual artists created a world that felt simultaneously nostalgic and futuristic.

[12:07] Jessica: Clever.

[12:07] Meg: Uh huh. And Paul Rubens was the unifying visionary. They didn't have a big budget and they were trying to do something extremely ambitious. It took the team seven weeks to create the opening sequence through stop motion animation. And Paul gave notes on every detail. And the overall message of the show was be yourself. Weird is wonderful. Paul Rubens wanted to preach the gospel of nonconformity to the youth. You don't have to conform to society's rules. You can do the opposite. You can do whatever you want. In Pee Wee's puppet land, the most beautiful woman in the world, Ms. Yvonne, played by Lynn Marie Stewart, is in her 40s and Cowboy Curtis, played by Laurence Fishburne, is black. The cartoon series El Hombre was in Spanish without subtitles. Pee Wee danced in his mom's high heels. Paul made a show that was deliberately inclusive, but never commented on it in any way. He wanted to be educational in an undercover way. And he wanted to amuse himself as well. There were sneaky, silly sex jokes woven in, intended to go over kids heads. In one episode, in a tribute to Andy Warhol, he showed a two minute close up shot of a dog eating dog food. That's it. Two minutes of a dog eating dog food. Very close up with a mic. You hear every single chomp, chomp, slurp. It's mesmerizing. And no one from the network interfered. Paul got one note about the first episode. You can't stick pencils in a potato.

[13:52] Jessica: How could. Of all the stuff you've just named and who is like, who has. Who's got skin in that game? That's so bizarre.

[14:01] Meg: And Paul said, why not? And CBS backed down. They didn't get it. But they didn't stand in its way either. The first season was filmed in a hot loft at 480 Broadway between Broome and Grand. It was brutal. Some of them referred to it as a sweatshop. What they were trying to achieve required a soundstage. But they managed to pull it off and aloft by the skin of their teeth. They delivered the first episode to CBS studios by hand, minutes before it aired.

[14:36] Jessica: No way. Oh my God. Do you remember that scene in Broadcast News?

[14:40] Meg: Yes.

[14:40] Jessica: Where she's sliding through the studio? That's exactly.

[14:44] Meg: That's what this woman described doing.

[14:47] Jessica: Oh my God.

[14:48] Meg: That's Broadcast News.

[14:49] Jessica: Oh, that's so fabulous.

[14:50] Meg: And it was a hit. Children watched it, but college kids did too. And stoners and art students and a bunch of parents as well. It was peppered with New York actors, Jimmy Smits, Sandra Bernhard. Natasha Leon was one of the little kids. You're kidding me. No.

[15:11] Jessica: Oh my God.

[15:12] Meg: S ipatha Murkison.

[15:14] Jessica: No.

[15:14] Meg: Yep.

[15:15] Jessica: Oh my God.

[15:16] Meg: She was the male person.

[15:17] Jessica: She's the male person. Yes, I remember that. Yes.

[15:20] Meg: And of course, Phil Hartman. Oh, CBS had a hit and was willing to give Paul Reubens whatever he asked for. And Paul wanted to move the show to la. Not a fan of working in New York City. Now, Phil Hartman had helped develop the Pee Wee show, the Live Stage show, and he had co written Pee Wee's Big Adventure. And he had huge creative input on Pee Wee's Playhouse, including of course, playing Pee Wee's main sidekick, Captain Carl. After Pee Wee's Big Adventure and before production began on Pee Wee's Playhouse, Paul was asked to host Saturday Night Live as Pee Wee Herman. And he Agreed. As long as he could bring along Phil Hartman and John Paragon as writers for his skits. Apparently, this had never happened before. You know, Paul Rubins was not an easy person to work with, and he. They just said, okay, fine, you know, whatever you want. And, you know, Pee Wee was so popular, so I guess that was part of it. But I think also, he was a force of nature.

[16:32] Jessica: Well, also, he was such a carefully constructed character that I can't imagine that the SNL writers were like, yeah, we can duplicate that or create a world where Pee Wee can function.

[16:43] Meg: And also, I mean, he could have just said, no, I don't want to do that. And they were just like, well, it'll be less of a headache if he just brings his own writers along. So he did. After that, Phil Hartman decided to audition for the cast of Saturday Night Live and asked Rich Abramson, remember the manager, if he could put in a good word for him with Lorne Michaels ahead of his audition. And when Phil Hartman was cast along with. And this is an incredible cast, Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, Jon Lovitz, and Dennis Miller for the 1986 season, which was amazing. Yeah. Paul Reubens had already decided to move Pee Wee's Playhouse to la, and obviously Phil couldn't do both. Ultimately, Paul felt betrayed, and Phil felt like he never got enough credit for his Pee Wee work. And the two friends didn't speak again for the years.

[17:48] Jessica: That is very. While sad, Predictable.

[17:52] Meg: Yeah.

[17:54] Jessica: Big opportunities, Big ego. At least one. I don't know about Phil Hartman at that time. You know, and, like, I think no matter how much help someone who genuinely is a visionary gets, they can never quite get past mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.

[18:16] Meg: Yeah. And my understanding from the documentary is Phil Hartman wasn't the only one who felt their contributions weren't really appreciated to the degree that they should have been. Pee wee's Playhouse had five glorious seasons. Its last episode was November 10, 1998, months before his arrest for indecent exposure at an adult movie theater in Sarasota, Florida.

[18:47] Jessica: Yet another moment of proof that nothing good ever happens in Florida.

[18:54] Meg: In spite of his offer to perform a children's benefit if the police and local paper kept it quiet, it became a huge national story. Toys R Us removed Pee Wee Toys from its stores. CBS canceled reruns of Pee Wee's Playhouse, and Paul Reubens appeared publicly only three more times as Pee Wee Herman at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. He asked the audience, heard any good jokes lately?

[19:28] Jessica: Because there were a lot of peewee in the porno jokes.

[19:33] Meg: Yes. And in 1992, when he participated in a Grand Ole Opry tribute to Minnie Pearl. Aw. And he resurrected the Pee Wee Herman show on Broadway in 2010.

[19:47] Jessica: Amazing.

[19:49] Meg: But, yeah, Pee Wee had to go away after that arrest.

[19:53] Jessica: But he did. Paul Reubens started appearing in films.

[19:57] Meg: Yes, he did.

[19:58] Jessica: As a creepy. Which was pretty fantastic.

[20:02] Meg: He was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I remember when I recognized him, I was like, oh, my God, it's Pee Wee.

[20:11] Jessica: It's Pee Wee.

[20:12] Meg: He was ready for the show to be over. He was ready to do other things with his life creatively. But he didn't mean it to happen like that.

[20:23] Jessica: Well, who does? I mean, honestly. Yeah, it's. And I wonder, you know, with the world being what it is now, the Pee Wee show ended in 91.

[20:33] Meg: 90, 90.

[20:35] Jessica: So many, many years later now. What. I wonder what the reaction would be if he. I mean, who's even rating porno? Are there porno? Jesus. Do you like that? You'd have to break into his house and be like, stop watching pornhub.

[20:51] Meg: Well, you know, years later, somebody did report him for owning child pornography. He did not, in fact, own child pornography. He had a collection of old magazines that were gay themed, but they were from, like the 40s and the 50s. He collected so many things. He collected toys. He collected vintage magazines. And who's. Who's the guy from Bueller?

[21:22] Jessica: Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Who was the guy in Bueller?

[21:25] Meg: He was an actor in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He was also in Amadeus. His name is Jeffrey Jones. Oh.

[21:31] Jessica: Oh, yes, of course. Well, he definitely got right. Nabbed big time.

[21:36] Meg: He got in trouble, and it was the same person who got him in trouble also tried to get Paul Reubens in trouble.

[21:43] Jessica: Who is this person?

[21:45] Meg: Someone who was at his home and saw some of the vintage magazines and was like, that's child pornography. And they raided his home and it was all bullshit, but ouch. I mean, ridiculous and very, very upsetting to Paul Rubens, who was like, I'm a lot of things. That is not what I am. Are you fucking kidding me?

[22:07] Jessica: See, I was about to just go into one of my classic diatribes about what kind of asshole blows the whistle. And I'm like, well, they weren't wrong about Jeffrey Jones.

[22:17] Meg: Exactly.

[22:18] Jessica: So, yeah, maybe they were just a little keyed up, but, mm, yeah, Jeffrey Jones. So for those who need even more of a reminder, he was the principal in. In Ferris Bueller's Day off, and he was Also, this is a timely reference. He was the father in Beetlejuice.

[22:38] Meg: Right.

[22:38] Jessica: Uh, and the mom was Catherine o', Hara, who just died two days ago. A terrible loss. She was amazing. So a moment for Catherine o'. Hara.

[22:50] Meg: Yeah. But being accused then later on brought up all of this stuff for Paul Rubens, and he became a little bit more reclusive than he was already.

[23:01] Jessica: I. A very reasonable reaction. And what did he. How did he die?

[23:06] Meg: He died of cancer in 2023. And he hadn't told any of his friends that he was sick.

[23:14] Jessica: Very, very sad.

[23:14] Meg: It's a great documentary.

[23:16] Jessica: I will watch it. It sounds very good. Very sad, but very good.

[23:20] Meg: He talks about a lot about acting as an alter ego. How. How that was freeing for him on the one hand, but also very limiting.

[23:29] Jessica: Well, because people's expectations become so narrow, like that's what you are, and any deviation from that becomes challenging for people.

[23:39] Meg: And as awful as his arrest was. And do you want to talk about his arrest? Your memory of his arrest?

[23:45] Jessica: I. I mean, I only recall that a gay porno theater was raided and that he was scooped up in the raid. Was there more? Something more?

[23:53] Meg: That's. That's about it. He claimed that he, in fact, was not exposing himself, which is what he was accused of doing, was actually having his pants down. He says that is not true. I did not have my pants down. I was in a gay porn theater, but I was. Did not have my pants down.

[24:10] Jessica: Well, and. And the notion that I love. I love how antiquated we are. A porn theater, a theater, cinema of porn would only be like, only a gay one would be rated. Like, it's still like, it just. We have so many moments on this show where we're like, guys, this was not a long time ago at all. And like, if you want to think about where we are now in some areas of. Of social development versus others, like, could you imagine that happening now? It's not that much of a leap from raiding a gay club.

[24:46] Meg: True. So, and the association with. Well, if he's gay and he has a kids show, that he must be. Yes.

[24:55] Jessica: Did you ever see the movie Death to Shmoopy?

[24:59] Meg: No, it's not.

[25:00] Jessica: So it's this really bananas movie with Edward Norton as. And it's a rivalry between two children's show hosts. And it's Edward Norton and I think Robin Williams. Let me just double check that. But it got panned. But I watched it. I thought it was hilarious. It's so dark and so weird. Oh, death to smoochie not Schmoopy. Death to Smoochie. Oh, it's Danny DeVito.

[25:31] Meg: Okay, wait, start over. Okay. Not Robin Williams.

[25:36] Jessica: No, it is. Oh, it is. It's Robin Williams. Edward Norton, Katherine Keener, Danny DeVito, Jon Stewart. And it centers on Rainbow Randolph Smiley, Robin Williams, a disgraced former children's television host who attempts to sabotage his replacement, Sheldon Mopes, played by Ed Norton, and his character, Smoochie the Rhino. It's directed by Danny DeVito. I think it's completely hilarious. So the, the very quick plot synopsis is the Rainbow Randolph show has a. He's got a friendly on screen Persona masking his alcoholism and criminal, criminal behavior. His career ends when he's arrested by the FBI at Patsy's Warehouse for accepting bribes. He's dismissed from the network. The network has to find a suitable replacement. And they find Sheldon Mopes, the naive Sheldon Mopes and his character, Smoochie the Rhino. He's really sincere and he's dedicated to quality children's entertainment with his show Smoochie's Magic Jungle. And it puts him at odds with the show's producers. And then what happens in my memory is like basically an all out war between these two with like, it's physical violence, all of this stuff, but they're dressed in their outfits and it's just like, it's like somewhere between, you know, Pee Wee's Playhouse gone horribly, horribly wrong and like just a ridiculous fight action movie. I thought it was insanely funny. If you, if you want more children's, you know, television programming parody, you know, that's, that's the one to look for.

[27:31] Meg: Do you remember Pee Wee's Big Adventure at all? I do. Do you remember like Pee Wee Mania?

[27:37] Jessica: Yeah, I remember Pee Wee Mania. I, I didn't see Pee Wee's Big Adventure in a theater. I saw it later on like HBO or something. And I know this is going to make me sound like a grouch. I thought it was really fun and funny, but I. 20 minutes is enough for me. I'm okay. There were specific moments, you know, that I could recognize as being absolutely brilliant. But I think I, I was just not, you know, the target audience. I can recognize that he was a genius and changed. He changed television, he changed programming, he changed, he, he was the same kind of subversive in my mind or with, or the same vibe as the B52s. He had that kind of, you know, the, the aesthetic and the understanding of how to take a very particular look from the same era. That they did and blow it up and how. How it would lend itself to something that is. This is sort of what we talked about with the description of Googie style. It's otherworldly. He, you know, he took you completely out of wherever you might be. And I think it was amazing. I just was not. I wasn't a kid. I wasn't little enough to love Pee Wee's Playhouse. And I'm sure I was so immersed in John Husdom that the idea of Pee Wee, like, wasn't really my thing.

[29:04] Meg: Watching the documentary and the clips from Pee Wee's Big Adventure and also from Pee Wee's Playhouse that I didn't watch regularly. We were too old to watch Saturday morning cartoons. What it reminded me of is the response that some people have to art when they don't understand it. And it can either be like, ooh, I don't get it, but tell me more, or it can be, I don't get it. What's the point? And I think that he had that effect on people, and I think that it reminded me that I should think twice. Find a way to be curious about things I don't understand.

[29:42] Jessica: Well, if that's. If that alone is the legacy of. Of Paul Rubens, that's pretty. Pretty damn good.

[29:49] Meg: Yeah. Because, I mean, what he was doing was whatever was going on inside his brain, he was just bringing it out. I mean, there's no reason for anybody to get it but just be intrigued by it. Right. Nobody else's brain work like that.

[30:05] Jessica: Right. And I think another part of why it was so successful, and I'm just building on what you said, is that he wasn't creating it to appeal to an audience. Since it started as a stage show, it was, let the audience find me. You know what I mean? Like. Like when you're creating and you do this with theater, I do this with books. You always know when you're creating something to be commercial. It's never as good as whatever the passion is that makes you just make this thing and then see who digs it. And I think that everything you've described about the evolution of Paul Rubens and the stage show and then the TV show and how much license he was given to just go crazy. He never had to create for sales. Like, so that's. I think that's part of why it. It was so spectacular.

[31:03] Meg: Right. Like, network executives would have destroyed it.

[31:06] Jessica: They worried about a potato and a pencil.

[31:09] Meg: I know.

[31:09] Jessica: I mean, it was seriously, if that's. If that's not truth to hang on to. Right. Like the note to Pee Wee's Playhouse is not even. I don't like it. You can't put a pencil in a potato. Like that's something that would be a joke on the show. It's even like a spongebob kind of joke.

[31:41] Meg: So Jessica.

[31:42] Jessica: Yes, Meg.

[31:43] Meg: This episode is coming out on February 3rd, which is a Tuesday toosdy. And we are next recording on Wednesday.

[31:53] Jessica: Wednesday.

[31:55] Meg: And we will be doing a watch party of Splash. So if you are listening to this, you still have today to watch Splash and tell us what you think and we will talk about what you think about Splash.

[32:10] Jessica: But yes, I'm excited.

[32:12] Meg: Yeah, me too. Today I'm gonna go home and watch it right now possibly.

[32:17] Jessica: I think that's a great idea. I think I'm gonna do the same thing.

[32:20] Meg: Cool. Happy Splash day.

[32:22] Jessica: Happy Splash.

[32:23] Meg: It.